ANTEBELLUM AMERICA TIMELINE

Alexander Hamilton proposes economic recovery plan that divides country's leaders into two political parties. Hamilton's plan includes:

• Assume State Debts and Create National Debt
• Bank of the United States
• Protective Tariff does not pass Congress
• Excise Taxes

• Naturalization Act lengthened from 5 to 14 years the residence requirement for citizenship
• Alien Act empowered the president to expel "dangerous" aliens
• Alien Enemy Act authorized President, in time of declared war, to expel or imprison enemy aliens at will
• Sedition Act defined as a high misdemeanor any combination or conspiracy against legal measures of the government, including interference with federal officers and insurrection or riot. Also forabe writing, publishing, or speaking anything "false, scandalous and malicious" against the government or any of its officers.

Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions suggests idea of Nullification as means of dealing with constitutional issues.

Midnight Appointments Adams Administration creates many new judgeships and appoints members of the Federalist Party to these lifetime jobs that would determine how laws were actually enforced.

Marbury v. Madison establishes judicial review as means to deal with constitutional issues.

Was the reason for declaring war really the defense of rights of neutrals?
Why did the US "win" the war?
What constitutional issues did the Hartford Convention address and how did it propose to resolve them? And what effect did it have on the Federalist Party
Why was the Battle of New Orleans so important since the peace treaty was signed a few weeks before the battle took place?

• Second Bank of the United States

The First Bank charter expired in 1811 with the economy falling into a muddle and state banking exploding without regulation and much fraud. Madison and most younger Democratic Republicans voted for the Second Bank of the US (usually abbreviated to 2^nd BUS) because the embarrassment that the government couldn't float loans nor transfer funds across the country during the war.

• capitalized at $35,000,000
• chartered for 20 years
• Federal Government owned one fifth of the stock and appointed five of the twenty-five directors of this quasi-governmental institution
• Internal Improvements
• Wanted Federal Government to invest in constructing canals and railroads
• Federal Government constructed National Road
• Protective Tariff
• Passed mildly protective tariff in 1816, and increased level of protection in 1824. A protective tariff taxed imported goods in order to protect fledgling American industrialization. Will become extremely important in 1828

• British demand for US cotton decreased (and thus the price of cotton dropped like a rock) because UK started to import cotton from India
• Banks get caught flat from overextending credit to buy western lands because the drop in cotton prices affected land prices as well. Banks had to call in loans to pay for demand for cash by depositors. Many banks could not collect their loans quickly enough and therefore went bankrupt, leaving depositors without funds to pay the loans they owed. Became a viscious cycle.

• Slavery Restricted to Louisiana Territory south of 36° 30'
Remember that northern part of Louisiana Territory described as "Great American Desert" by Lewis and Clark
• Balanced admission of new states into Union to maintain balance of political power between free and slave states in the Senate
• Missouri entered union as slave state.
• Maine carved out of northern section of Massachusetts to be the balancing free state.
• Thomas Jefferson called the compromise, "The death knell of the Union."

• Tariffs generally opposed by South and New England, but favored by West and Mid-Atlantic States
• Andrew Jackson's supporters via a scheme by John C. Calhoun proposed new tariff to raise duties on raw materials so high that all would opose them. Sought to politically join New England manufacturers and merchants to the South, but Northerners actually supported much of the tariff and the bill passed.
• Calhoun resigned job as Jackson's Vice President and returned to South Carolina to write South Carolina Exposition and Protest which set forth an explicit method by which a state could nullify an act of Congress that the state considered unconstitutional. Calhoun immediately elected to US Senate from SC.

• Congress reduced tariff during Summer of 1832, but SC claimed only did so in order to convince such an unconstitutional act was not so bad.
• SC holds Nullification Convention, just like constitutional convention, and passes ordinance of nullification that declares US tariff law null and void within state boundaries. Includes provisions to arrest and imprison anyone collecting these taxes within the state.
• Jackson re-elected President in landslide victory in November 1832
• Jackson's opponent, Henry Clay was member of same party as Jackson
• Major Campaign issue was whether to re-charter the 2^nd BUS, which was not actually up for recharter until 1836.
• Jackson wastes his popularity when he issues the Force Proclamation in December 1832, requiring SC to submit to Federal law or suffer invasion by US troops.
• The perception of "King Andrew" creates the Whig Party as the party in opposition to the absolute monarchy of Andrew Jackson
• The perception that federal troops could invade SC and kill American citizens over constitutional issues makes everyone realize the depth of the problem, since this could result in real civil war.
• In January 1833, Henry Clay proposes a "carrot and stick" approach by offering to lower the tariff progressively over the next nine years, but also authorizing the use of force if SC doesn't comply with federal law.
• By March 1833 SC blinks first, and holds another Nullification Convention to repeal the Nullification Ordinance with regard to the tariff of 1832. The convention then nullifies the force portion of Clay's compromise as a face saving device.

• Depression in England drastically reduced the demand for (and thus the price) of cotton which affects Southern economy. The English depression also reduced British ability to invest in American Improvements.
• Wheat crop failure prevented balancing payments for foreign goods
• State plans for internal improvements collapsed
• Wildcat banks collapsed

• Americans in Mexican province of "Tejas" declared independence in 1836 because Mexico insisted on enforcing its laws outlawing slavery. The new Republic of Texas claimed, but did not occupy, lands historically not considered part of the province. In fact, its extreme claims included Santa Fe, which was the capital of the province of New Mexico.
• US avoided annexing Texas throughout 1830s because everyone knew it would cause a war with Mexico
• President John Taylor submitted annexation treaty with Republic of Texas in early 1840s in order to make it a campaign issue, but could not garner sufficient votes for the constitutional majority needed for a treaty to be ratified in the Senate.
• James Polk elected President in 1844 on plank requiring "re-annexing" Texas and claiming all of the Oregon Territory up to the southern boundary of Russian America. Polk annexed Texas without a treaty, thus obviating need for a constitutional majority in the Senate. He then sent troops into areas of Mexico claimed by Texas. Mexico fired on the invaders and the US declared war on Mexico for shedding American blood on US soil.
• US sent troops, mainly from the South, to fight Mexicans. Quickly captured northern third of Mexico, which it claimed as booty. Continued war with Mexico because Mexican government refused to surrender. Sent Ambassador to negotiate end, but nobody would talk to him until after nearly the entire country was captured by the US. Mexicans then quickly signed treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, and agreed to give up only the northern third of their country, although many Southerners called for annexing all of Mexico for use as future slave states since it lay entirely south of 36° 30'.
• Wilmot Proviso in 1846 said that US would not extend slavery into territories captured from Mexico where slavery was already abolished, which meant that only Texas would have been available as a future slave state. Southerners of both parties join to oppose the proviso, while Northerners generally voted for it. Thus this proviso served to realign national politics from partisan politics (Democrat v. Whig) to sectional politics (North v. South.) The proviso never passed but was voted upon frequently.

• Two Most Important Clauses
• California joins Union as Free State without balance of entry of Slave State
• South get stronger fugitive slave law
• Less Important Clauses
• Organize remainder of territory taken from Mexico without discussing issue of slavery
• Deny Texas its extreme land clamins to source of Rio Grande
• Compensate Texas for lost land claims by assuming its national debt
• Uphold slavery within District of Columbia
• Abolish interstate slave trade from District of Columbia
• Deny congressional authority to interfere with interstate slave trade outside of District of Columbia
• Originally concocted as a single "omnibus" bill by Heny Clay, "The Great Compromiser"
• Nearly everyone found something to dislike in the omnibus package and voted it down.
• Stephen Douglas, "The Little Giant", broke omnibus into seperate bills and found sufficient votes to pass each part of the compromise
• An analysis of the votes show that nearly every member of congress voted against some portion of the compromise, indicating that nobody would be ultimately satisfied with the compromise

• Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Stephen Douglas wanted to organize territory between midwest and far west so could plan a transcontinental railroad, but needed aid of Southerners which reintroduced sectional issue about expansion of slavery.
• Two main points of Act:
• Repealed Missouri Compromise Line which meant that all territories were open to slavery.
• Introduced concept of "Popular Sovereignty" which meant that the people of the territory should decide whether they should allow slavery. Took Congress out of the mix.
• Bleeding Kansas
• Under "Popular Sovereignty" both North and South attempted to control the outcome of elections in Kansas
• Armed "Ruffians" from Missouri "moved" to neighboring Kansas on election days
• New England abolitionists supported immigration societies which ran guns to Kansas as well as abolitionist immigrants
• New Englanders control Territorial Legislature while Southerners control Constitutional Convention which results in claims of two separate governments. Much political violence and murder
• John Brown's followers massacre an entire community of pro-slavery Southerners
• Southerners respond by burning down town of Lawrence, which was the center of antislavery in Kansas.
• LeCompton Constitution
• Southerners write slavery into proposed state constitution, but don't give electorate right to vote down constitution
• Northern controlled US Congress refuses to admit Kansas under LeCompton Constition until electorate allowed to vote it down.
• As compromise Southerners agreed to reopen vote, but required that if Kansas votes down its constitution, it cannot reapply for admission for 20 years.
Kansas Electorate voted down the LeCompton Constitution anyway, and Kansas was admitted to the Union during the Civil War.

• Slaves were not citizens and therefore could not sue for freedom if taken to free territories.
• The Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional, because Congress did not have the right to legislate about slavery in the territories.
• If Congress could not make laws about slavery, then neither could territorial legislatures because they are creations of Congress. Threw idea of Popular Sovereignty into confusion. Seemed to say that you could take slaves anywhere and nobody could stop you.

• End of Crimean War reduced demand for American Grain.
• Stock of manufactured goods exceeded demand for those goods.
• State bank system very weak, but Panic brought on by collapse of Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company.

• Democratic Party split
• Northern Democrats nominated Douglas at Baltimore
• Southern Democrats walked out of Baltimore Convention and later nominated Breckenridge -- a "fire eater" -- at a seperate convention at Charleston
• Third Party formed -- "Constitutional Unionists" which nominated Bell from Tennessee
• Republicans nominated Lincoln as dark-horse candidate when party leaders could not agree on their first choice
• Lincoln campaigned on plank barring further expansion of slavery
• Lincoln elected on strictly sectional vote, did not win any electoral votes in South
• Southern vote split between Breckenridge and Bell